1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an article forming apparatus, and more particularly, but not by way of limitation, to an improved apparatus and method for semi-automatically forming an article, such as a flower pot cover, from a sheet of material.
2. Brief Description of the Related Art
It has been known to provide a decorative covering for a flower pot by forming a sheet of material between a male die and a female die as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,773,182. This particular decorative cover is a preformed flower pot cover made by forming a sheet of material between a male die and a female die In this process, a plurality of overlapping folds are formed in the material. The overlapping folds cooperate to provide structural strength to keep the preformed shape of the flower pot cover.
Several apparatuses are known for forming the decorative covers. These apparatuses range from manual machines to automatic machines. The manual machines require an operator to position a sheet of material between the male die and the female die, engage a start button to activate the machine whereby the male die is caused to mate with the female die, and remove the formed cover from the male die after the male die has been removed from the female die.
While manual machines are relatively inexpensive to manufacture and maintain, the operation of such machines is inefficient due to the number of steps required to be carried out by the operator to produce a cover. In addition, the repetitiveness of these steps required to produce a large number of covers can cause repetitive motion injuries to the operator. The operator is also at risk of being burned as the operator removes the formed cover from the male die, which is generally heated to facilitate the forming process.
While fully automatic machines avoid the above described problems associated with manual machines, they are often too expensive to manufacture and maintain to be cost efficient.
To this end, an improved apparatus for semi-automatically forming an article, such as a flower pot cover, from a sheet of material is needed which is economical to manufacture and operate and results in significant increases in production efficiency, while eliminating certain repetitive motions of an operator. It is to such an apparatus and method that the present invention is directed.